Beginning late next week, Seattle-based Aurelian AI will handle the calls coming into SECOMM’s non-emergency phone number, said Aimee Fournier-Plante, the agency’s training and development manager.
Southeast Communications Center (SECOMM) is the central dispatching agency for nearly every agency in Benton and Franklin counties. Much like dispatch centers across the country it has struggled to hire enough people to answer the average of more than 750 calls a day.
Non-emergency calls can include reporting crimes no longer happening, minor traffic concerns or providing tips to police.
“Nothing about how the public reaches out to us to get to our partners is going to change,” she told the Tri-City Herald.
The agency is in the final steps for rolling out the AI software that is expected to start answering calls from the non-emergency number Jan. 15, Fournier-Plante said.
The system will not impact calls made directly to 911. The agency aims to answer those emergency calls within 10 to 15 seconds.
On any given day, 60% to 70% of the Tri-Cities area dispatch center calls are coming in on the non-emergency line — 509-628-0333. And that can leave callers waiting to get their concerns addressed.
Fournier-Plante said they are currently understaffed, with about 34 full-time employees and three part-time. In the past officials have said they could use 42 full-time positions.
This is the exact problem that Aurelian AI was designed to address. The company started in 2023 to find ways to address the flood of complaints coming into dispatchers that don’t need an immediate response from police or fire officials, but do need to be reported, according to a story in GeekWire.
The system is already being used in Washington state by dispatch centers in Snohomish, Cowlitz, Grant and Jefferson counties. RiverComm, the dispatch center for Chelan and Douglas counties, is also considering using the technology.
The company claims it can save dispatchers about three hours every day and makes it so that callers do not need to wait on hold for a live dispatcher.
The change will not replace any dispatcher jobs, said officials, and the non-emergency number will remain the same.
‘Exhaustively stress-tested’
SECOMM officials started looking into Aurelian AI last year, Fournier-Plante said. Since then, officials have been testing the service, which is expected to cost about $120,000 a year.
“We have exhaustively stress-tested the system,” she said. “Knowing the makeup of our community, not all of us are sold on AI. We’re making sure it’s working and that it provides a service that is the same or better.”
They used 1,000 recorded calls to test how well and how many the system could handle, and discovered it was able to deal with 68% of them, Fournier-Plante said.
The system is similar to a phone tree and will collect a caller’s information and complaint. That information will be passed on to a dispatcher who will review it to decide where it needs to forwarded to.
But the system is programmed to recognize frustration or anxiety in a person’s voice or certain trigger words. In those cases, it will forward those calls directly to a person.
“It will say that it’s going to transfer the call to a live dispatcher, and it’s been very successful,” she said.
They also plan to continue closely monitoring the system once it launches.
“Our priority has always been public safety,” Jay Atwood, Benton County Emergency Services executive director, said in a statement on the agency’s website. “This technology allows our emergency communications dispatchers stay focused on emergency calls, while still ensuring non-emergency callers receive timely, accurate assistance.”
© 2026 Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
